Holy crap cpu utilization.

[mikus]

So, my pc is not average, given using arch linux, dual socket, 2x10 core xeon e5v4 cpus, 40 threads, and 128gb of memory as my desktop, running in 3x 4k monitors on a GTX1070 video. Running Subnautica amazed me at the amount of utilization given nothing taxes this pc, but Subnautica does maxing out 40 threads at 70-80% utilization per thread.

Why?

Something seems wrong that you can tax this level of cpu utilization, that I can't imagine this even functioning on most standard consumer pc's.

Even loading this, the utilization is enormous. I really can't say I've seen a game, or any other application function at 2000% at anything less than a race condition, so props, but um... what the hell?

Here is a grab of the desktop with htop, gkrellm, and subnautica running in unholy usage. I've played this decently for over 20 hours, isn't great at 17fps on common at 4k, but still visually stunning on my displays at that to make it enjoyable.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/LSys44p4ToqMkHWb6

I have tried this stretching it windowed across all 3x 4k displays close to native 11520x2160 resolution, and it ran at like .2fps. Sad, it would be nice as these are 3x 48" curved samsung tv displays that wrap around me at a good 150 degrees or so. I've love to play this fully across all displays at 150-180 degrees of peripheral view. I'm hoping you resolve some performance issues to allow this eventually.

[Krampus]

Your point being?
The game not optimized for your arguably ridiculous specs?

[mikus]

My point is wtf are they doing that requires that much cpu legitimately, other than probably cryptomining my cpu/gpu when not looking. Running at 17fps, it's still slow, but jesus, what does the poor fellow with a 2-4 core system do and a lesser gpu?

It doesn't seem to matter how much cpu I give it, it uses it to use the max on all it can, despite anything. Seems like a virus as not helping my fps any more than someone with much less cpu, while still pegging cpu threads, and all, to max.

If it can't function reasonably well on a decent gpu with cpu threads abound, how at all on any *typical* system?

[Krampus]

Originally posted by mikus:

My point is wtf are they doing that requires that much cpu legitimately, other than probably cryptomining my cpu/gpu. Running at 17fps, obviously it's slow, bug jesus, what does the poor fellow with a 2-4 core system with 4-8gb of memory do?

Have less screens to render and calculate?

[mikus]

Well, here is what it looks like with and without subnautica running.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/2CG2aWmptBNWo3xq6
https://photos.app.goo.gl/CS3C7tW1DRmbo54S7

It's just really something I've never seen before in terms of my cpus going bonkers. I get random mouse events going haywire, but the only general dysfunction I notice aside from just slow frame rate noted in upper right hand of the middle display with subnautica running on the caps.

I do use a lot of resources with vm's in the background too, but don't notice steam detriment otherwise playing games normally outside experience with subnautica.

[mikus]

Also, most other games I've played lately for windoze via proton, or native linux, run well upward of 30-60fps at very least, and really haven't noticed problems since later protons. Subnautica is the only game that suffers this lag at 4k res as low as 11fps that it tends to do, and with that odd cpu spiking all over, just curious why perhaps the limits.

It's really not at all unplayable still to me at 11fps, and have enjoyed it for some close to 30 hours of play. I'm just trying to figure out how to improve it, or help the dev's do so.

Note also, I'm running nvtop in the lower right display below htop, which gpu doesn't seem to be stressed, only the cpu, yet low frame rate working the cpu's.

Just not sure if this is some sort of bug or not that this performs so low even with abundant resources.

[mikus]

Originally posted by Ballchaser 9000:

Originally posted by mikus:

My point is wtf are they doing that requires that much cpu legitimately, other than probably cryptomining my cpu/gpu. Running at 17fps, obviously it's slow, bug jesus, what does the poor fellow with a 2-4 core system with 4-8gb of memory do?

Have less screens to render and calculate?

I can run with less, certainly, I can detach 2x of the hdmi's to the other sets to simplify even.

As stated, other games don't tend to care so much, adhering to their rendering only, but subnautica seems severely bound somehow that framerate is so low. I even minimized all setting, turning off features, and setting lowest possible visually, and didn't change, which is odd.

Haven't looked to see if there are any fps tests otherwise native to subnautica, but happy to run any tests that help.

[nop277]

It sounds like you're just running this on a extremely atypical setup, which is probably why you are experiencing this. I would try turning off pretty much all the VMs and stuff and disconnecting the two other monitors just to see how well it runs then. I run this game on a computer I built like 5 years ago, with a video card i added like 2 years ago and it runs almost flawlessly. I'm running it in windows though on one monitor though which is a pretty common setup so i imagine it's pretty well optimized for that.

[RIP Val Kilmer]

Ryzen 1800x never goes about 25% cpu usage. Maybe try playing the game at a real resolution that actual people use? It's pretty obvious you are trying to run the game on server hardware with a gaming gpu, and guess how many people do that? You. They literally would have to test against you and nobody else on this planet.

[miklkit]

My 1700 @ 3.9 ghz has seen up to 60% cpu loads but a few tweaks in the options menu got it down to 35% or so. What is that server running at? 1.5 ghz?

[Ancient]

Originally posted by miklkit:

What is that server running at? 1.5 ghz?

E5v4 10-core xeons run from 1.8 to 2.6GHz base, some of them up to 3.4-3.5GHz turbo. Depends on which models he put in there.

I agree on the usage being odd. I have an i7-6800K @4.2GHz and overall usage caps out below 25% with everything maxed/1600p/60Hz on a GTX 1080. The game on native windows uses very little actual CPU for me.

Usage during load: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1646068746
Usage in game: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1646069377

I have a similar laptop to my desktop, an MSI GT73VR Titan Pro-202 with an i7-6820HK @4.0GHz and GTX 1080 mobile and it's pretty much the same if not with just slightly higher overall usage on the CPU.

Seems like a ton of OP's usage must be VM and/or proton overhead or something because I don't think it's the game itself needing it.

[mikus]

The cpus are nothing shabby, E5-2630 v4 @ 2.20GHz, and run things like Tomb Raider, Overlord, Overload, and Shadow or Moridor just fine in 4k at at least 30fps typically, often much higher. This is often with fxaa 2-8x, other pretty features turned up, because part of the point of this *is* testing to see how capable these are, particularly under Linux in 4k, and now that we can play windoze games under linux, the Proton-based games too.

So far only Subnautica has proven an absolute pig for resources like this across many different proton/windoze games, requesting ~2000% cpu that even 20 cores can barely keep up with. Only reason I really mentioned it at all is it just seems an egregious performance runaway that may or may not be *typical*, as the game still *does* work, just at low fps, and turning my tower into a furnace.

I'll tweak some with the proton dx settings some more too, I just didn't have anything to relate the performance to a more standard desktop system to even start. Thank you for that.

It's a Dell Precision Desktop, but yes, more server than desktop with dual cpu. I don't think it so unreasonable to expect 8-12 core systems with 16-24 threads these days, so even my 40 threads shouldn't seem so crazy. Most software likes the extra threads even...

Subnautica is quite popular on the ProtonDB page among linux users playing it, which thanks to Proton, linux is a whole new platform they can sell their game on that they didn't even have to pay to develop. I'm certainly not the only one playing Subnautica under linux now, would be nice if the devs would recognize and support testing with Proton now.

[mikus]

Thanks @Ancient, yeah mine looks nothing like that obviously, but that's why I posted a "with" and "without subnautica" running, as aside from it there is almost no cpu usage normally.

The system runs quite efficiently, even with several vm appliances running in the background. I've run it like this for years while gaming or hanging out in a graphic-intensive worlds, and never seen what subnautica does to my system.

I'm thinking it's proton since as you said, SN works relatively lightly on cpus under windows natively it seems, so barking up that tree seems prudent.

Thanks to everyone for input!

[mikus]

So with some comparison, I began tweaking with Proton game launch options, and sure enough disabling esync, a common proton tweak seems to have resolved the crazy cpu usage across every core! Note for future linux users...

However, oddly the game still runs at a steady 11-12 fps even with cpu now barely noticeable. Setting all graphics to low at 4k res, same. Downgrading resolution to 1080p, still only got this marginally better to 15fps. It doesn't matter if I crank 1080p or 4k resolutions from low to high quality with all options on/maxed, I still end up with an average of 11-15fps. There is the low fps you can see, but otherwise no random lag/locking, just... slow.

Maybe another artifact of the proton/wine layer, but now particularly with neither the cpu's or gpu grinding abnormally, this should be faster...

[DaBa]

You are trying to game on two xeon processors, that's your first mistake. That is not a CPU for video games. Expect weird behavior and ♥♥♥♥♥♥ performance from most indie games that wouldn't even dream of testing or optimizing for this kind of a ridiculous setup. I am sitting here comfortably with my Ryzen with normal CPU usage.

[BattleToads]

Originally posted by Agent Pothead:

Ryzen 1800x never goes about 25% cpu usage. Maybe try playing the game at a real resolution that actual people use? It's pretty obvious you are trying to run the game on server hardware with a gaming gpu, and guess how many people do that? You. They literally would have to test against you and nobody else on this planet.

And me. Proudly running my Xeon with an RX580 8GB and it runs fantastic. Even at 21:9. Good thing so many gamers think like you do, so we can keep getting them good, good, cheap xeons.